Oliver Haslam on September 29, 2022, 6:46 pm

Game Over: Google Is Shutting Down Stadia

Google has today announced its intention to end support for the Stadia game streaming service on January 18, 2023.

The move, which is a shock to some but not necessarily all industry watchers, means that gamers will be able to play titles through until that date.

Google says that the move comes after the recognition that the Stadia service hasn’t proven as popular as it had originally expected, noting that it’s made the decision to begin winding it down.

A few years ago, we also launched a consumer gaming service, Stadia. And while Stadia’s approach to streaming games for consumers was built on a strong technology foundation, it hasn’t gained the traction with users that we expected so we’ve made the difficult decision to begin winding down our Stadia streaming service.

There is some good news for those who have already bought Stadia hardware and software, though. Google says that it “will be refunding all Stadia hardware purchases made through the Google Store, and all game and add-on content purchases made through the Stadia store.” Players can continue to use everything as normal through January 18, but after that, they can expect a refund to be automatically processed by mid-January.

As for the technology that will power Stadia, Google says that we should probably expect that to be used elsewhere including on YouTube, Google Play, and in the world of AR.